Howdy!

I'm Becca, a parent, like you, just trying my level best, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, to form my children in our beautiful Catholic faith. But life is messy, isn't it? In my family photo below, our newborn had a huge spit-up while we were trying to get the "perfect" Easter image. This photo captures my complete joy in the moment- a joy I would not have if I will still chasing after "picture perfect" idea of what it means to be Catholic.

A few years ago, when I first began started Catholic Childhood, I began to realize that I was getting lost in the sea of festivities and activities during the Church year, comparing and despairing, biting off more than I could chew, and ending up not joyful, but overwhelmed by trying to do ALL the things. ALL the time.

In my attempt to live liturgically to the maximum, and start a ministry, I was losing the "forest for the trees" in an attempt to do everything. I wound up burned out in the midst of trying to homeschool, be involved in multiple ministries, teach piano and voice, all while struggling with chronic low energy and due to years of physical and emotional challenges from health issues and recurrent miscarriage.

Our faith is SO rich, and while I desire to bring as much of it as possible into our domestic Church, sometimes getting too caught up in the hustle and bustle loses the heart of what liturgical living should be- prayer; connection with God and with our children.

Keeping the feasts is a wonderful goal and provides some of the best memories we will make with our children while they are under our roof. But if we are not finding moments of quiet and stillness daily during the liturgical year, then we are not truly being restored by the Lord.

While we are busy raising our families, serving and caring for them day in and day out, we need to find quiet with the Lord, and then go forth and teach our children to simply be and reflect in his presence through scripture and prayer.

Our loving Father surely does not will for us to be constantly stressed out, trying to do much, and always feeling like we are failing him, our family, and ourselves. He wants us to find joy and peace in him.

With this conviction of trying to get back to the prayerful aspect of our faith in mind, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, I decided to start over with Catholic Childhood and create something beautiful and simple for Lent. And I'm honored to share it with you now.

Thank you for allowing me to share this work from my heart with you and your family. I wish you the most peaceful and blessed of Advents.

In pax Christi,

Rebecca Sanders, OP

Catholic mom, catechist, & musician